Kevin Coll from Fused Film – Critical Juncture

Thursday, May 13, 2010 at 4:04 pm

This week on Critical Juncture, we’re honored to have Kevin Coll as our special guest. As our regular readers know, this segment focuses on questions and answers with film critics and bloggers from around the globe, and I hope the resulting interviews will prove both thought-provoking and occasionally amusing. The questions asked each week are the same, allowing you to go back through the archives and compare and contrast. Now let’s find out a little bit about Kevin Coll in his own words:

Kevin Coll is a 25 year old film nut with a degree in Communications Studies with a focus in Journalism and PR. He also has a business degree. He started Fusedfilm.com in 2007 and it has quickly become a hit film news and entertainment site. Originally his destiny was to go to film school, hit LA and try and become the next big thing. Circumstances change, but in college he fell in love with writing. Now he operates Fusedfilm.com, which provides a connection and information hub for the latest (Film,TV, Entertainment) news, trailers, reviews, opinions, hype, buzz and everything else related to the moviegoing experience. When he’s not working on the site, he loves watching more movies, writing screenplays and playing guitar.

Only Good Movies: What’s the first movie that you remember seeing?Kevin Coll:The Muppet Movie.

OGM: Is there a particular film that you feel is criminally underrated?KC:Stargate: The Movie and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Stargate has such a great concept mixed with some great special effects for the time and a great scale. It’s like Lawrence of Arabia meets Independence Day. Sky Captain isn’t the best movie, but there are a lot of great visuals mixing Doctor Who-type Cybermen with a 1930s type backdrop. It’s fun and creative.

OGM: Which director do you feel has turned out the best overall body of work?KC: Recently, Christopher Nolan! The guy hasn’t missed yet. Even with some flaws in his films they are not enough to outshine his penchant for bringing out Hitchcockian type stories with tons of character development.

OGM: From an artistic standpoint, which film do you think is most important?KC:Lawrence of Arabia. There is something so epic about that movie in its scale, its acting, but more importantly its cinematography and script writing. It has such wonderful striking visuals, dramatic music, literate screenplay and the most superb performance by Peter O’Toole.

OGM: All artsy considerations aside, which movie is your personal favorite?KC:Empire Strikes Back and Wrath of Khan…its a tie.

OGM: In your opinion, which film is entirely overrated?KC: I think the Lord of the Rings series was sort of overrated. It is great, no doubt there, but there’s a lot of weaknesses with it as it moves into the last film. The acting becomes stale, as well, and there are elements of the production that are just cheesy.

OGM: Have you ever walked out of the theatre during a film? If so, what movie was playing?KC: Yes, many times. Most recently, Date Night and Public Enemies.

OGM: In your mind, what’s the ultimate goal of a movie critic?KC: There are so many levels to what it means to be a critic, whether it’s the study, evaluation, or interpretation of movies and their stories. My ultimate goal as critic is not to persuade whether a film is good or bad, because that’s impossible since everyone has their own tastes. For me as a critic, it’s more than just reviewing a film, its painting a picture for moviegoers to decide in their mind whether or not the particular reviewed film is for them.

OGM: Time to look into the future. Do you predict any major changes for the movie industry over the next 25 years?KC: Oh yeah, I think we are seeing it now ranging from 3D and IMAX presentations of films to the shortened distribution windows now for films coming to theaters and then hitting the DVD shelves. I think the evolution of HD streaming will also play a role too…one day there may not even be theaters anymore, though that is unlikely.

OGM: Here’s another chance to predict the future. Name a relatively unknown actor or actress who’ll be a huge star within five years.KC: Actor: Anton Yelchin – he has been in big stuff (Terminator Salvation, Star Trek) but not many know who he is. I think he is a dynamite actor with loads of talent. I expect to see him in a lot of roles down the road.

Actress: Chloe Moretz – I think her turn as a young actress who seems much older than she really is will help her go far. Not to sound weird, but if she grows up to be hot then she can go even further. She is 13 now–in 5 years she is 18, and, with her skills as an actress, she can go really far.

Thanks again to Kevin Coll for taking part in this installment of Critical Juncture, and be sure to show your appreciation by visiting Fused Film. If you’re a movie critic or film blogger and would like to participate, be sure to drop me a line at onlygoodmovies[at]gmail[dot]com. You can also check out some previous interviews by clicking on the links below: